The incredible team at the University of Southampton successfully launched a Windows Phone 7 handset into the stratosphere as a testbed for a series of experiements to further atmospheric research into pollution. Friday's launch utilised a helium filled...

SYN-ACK anyone? I've really missed hearing your views via comments to this blog. For three years I thoroughly enjoyed writing this blog and then all of a sudden I simply stopped. I felt bad and meant to explain but never did. The more time passed...

You may recall that I shared the results of the previous Security Newsletter Survey - here's the latest version. In case you're not familiar with the survey it comprises feedback and charts from the readers of the Microsoft Ltd (UK) Security Newsletter...

If you're either a TechNet or MSDN subscriber then there's no need to rush though the sooner you start evaluating Windows 7 the sooner you can realise the benefits in your business. The public download of Windows 7 Beta 1 finishes on 10th February so...

I've been suprised at the number of people who've asked me this question in the last couple of days. As I've mentioned previously I moved over to Windows 7 as my main O/S back in October with the PDC/WinHec M3 pre-Beta. A couple of days ago I moved up...

Be it a desktop, laptop or netbook many people I've asked this question to answer "my home one" - if that's the case for you I'd love to hear the reason why.  If you're old enough to do so please cast your mind back to your work PC circa 1995 - the vast...

The Windows Team Blog will be updated in the next few hours detailing when and where to download the public beta 1 of Windows 7 I've been running the PDC/WinHec build of Windows 7 since October daily as my main machine and it's worked brilliantly....

If you'd like to join us please edit the wiki to add your name - that way we'll have a good idea of how many people to expect. Where : The Coach and Horses pub , 29 Greek Street, Soho, London W1V 5LL When : 11th December from 6pm to 8pm (and onwards...

Windows 1.0 was released on 20th November 1985 hence it's twenty three years old today! There's a great write up on TheRegister which includes a link to the pcmuseum - it's a third party site which runs through a summary of the releases of Windows...

It's the fourth annual GetSafeOnline campaign week whereby the team will raise the profile of consumer internet safety through a revamped GetSafeOnline website (containing a wealth of commonsense "how to" information) and a range of media activity. It...

I stumbled across this earlier in an edition of Computing - apparently the Hadron Collider "is expected to generate 40,000Gb of usable information per day" - assuming it operated at this rate for a year that would be over 14 Peta-bytes of data! I wonder...

You might be surprised just how easy it is to sort lists of text into alphabetical order simply using Microsoft Office's Excel as you can see from the screenshot below - the sort function works just as happily with text as numerals:

If you'd like to join the user group meeting then simply browse to the VistaSquad's website to sign up - it's free and will be a great opportunity for you to ask questions and learn from your peers. The following talks will take place during the user...

What are the first things that come to mind for you when considering "System Centre", "Forefront" and specific Microsoft security and/or management products? What's good? what frustrates you? Please comment to share your thoughts.

Simply browse to the Microsoft PDC website which advertises the streams as follows: "Watch the PDC2008 keynotes LIVE online on Monday and Tuesday from 8:30 AM- 10:30 AM Pacific Standard Time. Bookmark www.microsoftpdc.com and join Ray Ozzie and friends...

There's a great deal of expectation around Microsoft announcements at PDC2008 - I know what the details are and they are exciting. It's important though to not become "blinkered" and miss the other content - there's a great deal of great content both...

I love working at Microsoft as I get to work on cool new technologies that can be used to help people be more effective. I am lucky to be able to work with fascinating people from all walks of life. I've been quieter than usual on my blog over the last...

The Heroes Happen Here launch events may seem a long way back in the past (Spring 2008) but I thought you might find this interesting. I was lucky enough to be invited to speak at the UK launch event and I remember the huge amount of time and effort...

Thanks to those of you who completed August's Security Newsletter Survey and to Phil Cross for sharing the results which are as follows: Survey: (Aug 08) Security Newsletter Survey Client: Microsoft UK Date ranges: ...

The aim of this post is to start a conversation to share ideas rather than pitch Microsoft products. At a time of economic uncertainty it's in everyone's interest to help our business' to reduce their costs and improve profits.Please share suggestion...

I flew to Edinburgh yesterday to give a talk to the BCS (British Computer Society) and the IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology) - the details of which can be found here . The talk was recorded so that those of you who may wish to listen another...

You may have seen the coverage on the BBC or elsewhere for Google's "Mail Goggles" - I stumbled across it when buying a coffee as Rory Cellan-Jones was discussing it live on TV. Apparently it's an "opt-in" service so shouldn't frustrate those of you who...

I was amused to see the Letter to your Boss on the MicrosoftPDC website as referenced by the PDC Twitter feed . I'm sure budgets are tight for most organisations given the current financial melt down hence following as much of the proceedings as possible...

If some how you have the 27th to 30th October booked out to participate in PDC and haven't got around to registering or are still trying to find the budget to do so then you need to get your skates on as the conference is very close to being sold out...

I was asked this very question moments ago and while it's not anything new I thought it was probably worth sharing that there's a free standalone viewer available - just click here to access the download